The governing Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) narrowly lost its majority, while the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and List Burgenland (LBL) made gains.

Prior to amendments made in 2014, the Burgenland constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräten) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz.

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Burgenland are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process.

[2] For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold.

These additional votes do not affect the proportional allocation based on the vote for the party or list, but can change the rank order of candidates on a party's lists at the state and constituency level.